Legal AF by MeidasTouch - Trump's Bluff is Called and Runs Away

Episode Date: June 20, 2026

The DOJ and AG nominee Todd Blanche have informed a Senior Federal Judge that they will REFUSE to comply and file sworn testimony under oath to declare once and for all that the Anti-Weaponization Slush Fund is dead and buried, instead effectively telling Judge Brinkema to go pound sand.  Popok ties this outrageous fling together with Judge Williams in Miami’s next move, which may have the Slush Fund declared fraudulent after today, as well as the utter refusal by Todd Blanche to ever testify to a court under oath, even if it means the DOJ loses. Honeylove: Save 20% Off Honeylove by going to https://honeylove.com/LEGALAF! #honeylovepod Subscribe:  @LegalAFMTN  Visit https://meidasplus.com for more! Remember to subscribe to ALL the MeidasTouch Network Podcasts: MeidasTouch: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/meidastouch-podcast Legal AF: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/legal-af MissTrial: https://meidasnews.com/tag/miss-trial The PoliticsGirl Podcast: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-politicsgirl-podcast Cult Conversations: The Influence Continuum with Dr. Steve Hassan: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-influence-continuum-with-dr-steven-hassan The Weekend Show: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-weekend-show The Ken Harbaugh Show: https://meidasnews.com/tag/the-ken-harbaugh-show Majority 54: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/majority-54 On Democracy with FP Wellman: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/on-democracy-with-fpwellman Uncovered: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/maga-uncovered Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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In breaking news, the Department of Justice and its third highest-ranking official, Stan Woodward, have filed a piece of paper with Judge Brinkuma in the Eastern District of Virginia and told her to go pound sand. They are not going to file affidavits, sworn statements, sworn testimony under oath by Todd Blanche or Scott Bessent or Stan Woodward himself, to declare for her to her satisfaction as the fact finder that the anti-weaponization fund has, truly, truly been put out of its misery, that it's truly been killed by the Department of Justice. Judge Brinkuma last week ruled in a case brought by democracy forward, our friends, that if the federal government wants to get out from under this jurisdiction of the court and prove to her that it is moot, they need to file affidavits by Friday.

And instead of filing an affidavit, it's a testing under oath to have Todd Blanche swear under oath, that he really is walking away from the anti-weaponization fund, while Judge Williams in Miami considers later this same day the reply brief of 35 sitting federal judges about whether she should find fraud in the court, fraud on the court, and deception, and strike the settlement agreement down and the resulting weaponization fund

for a whole different set of reasons. As I predicted, and as I discussed with Sky Perryman, who's on democracy, forward, the leader of democracy forward, and led the charge in this case, there was no way that Todd Blanche was going to file under penalty of perjury any statement because a federal judge told him to. You're on the Midas Touch Network and Legal AF on Michael Popak with the breaking news. Let's go over and let me read to you for a moment in the filing that was just, that we just obtained, and I'll post a legal AF substack, here's what Stan Woodward has filed on behalf of.

himself and presumably the others in the case. Page two, the court stated that it will dismiss this case as moot, only if the acting attorney general Todd Blanche, Associate Attorney General Stan Woodward and Secretary of the Treasury, Scott percent, file all caps a declaration under penalty of perjury that they will not seek to take any action to create or operate the fund and that the fund will not proceed in any manner. And if it's not filed by just,

June 19th, June 10th, the court will issue a scheduling order requiring a responsive pleading by July 17th. They say such declarations are unnecessary, and the compelled testimony of senior officials implicate serious separation of power so go pound sand judge. Those are my words. They say that Tom Blanche already testified before Congress at the fund is not going anywhere, period. I mean, and so that should be enough for the judge. The judge made clear in that courtroom that this is a courtroom of law and facts and evidence have to be adduced within its four walls, not some random statement made by Todd Blanche. In fact, here's Sky Perryman, who was in the room during the hearing and how she evaluated Judge Brinkumma's position. Play the clip.

There's a comment about Blanche and Todd Blanche. So why won't he just provide a document of rescission? or ovation or whatever it's going to be to just put this out of its misery. Well, I haven't spoken to Todd Blanche lately. Yeah, you said that to Judge Leon, but it's been a couple of days now. Very important case. The eyes of the nation are on you. Are you telling me you haven't spoken to Todd Blanche?

Talk about that because here we have yet another example. And this is my own speculation. Todd Blanche is not filing an affidavit. Is yet another example of Todd Blanche not willing to give sworn testimony in a courtroom, even if it means that a judge, the Department of Justice loses. Well, it's quite remarkable, actually, that you have a Department of Justice that is willing

to make statements to a court in their briefing that they're not willing at this point to swear to. I mean, maybe they will come back and surprise us, but I'm with you. I don't know that they're going to be filing an affidavit. And the government's attorney block at the hearing went into an entire soliloquely about how he's made these representations as an officer of the court.

Well, if you've made, that's kind of the point. If you're making these representations as an officer, of the court, then why is it too much to ask that you make them under penalty of perjury? And this is something the Department of Justice has not been willing to do. And so I think it really highlights a theme you and I've been talking about for these last 18 months, which is actually the overall way that the Department of Justice is operating before the federal courts. It's unlike anything any of us as lawyers have ever really seen.

I mean, this is quite remarkable behavior. And it should not, of course, be normalized, which is something that we're trying to emphasize to people. It just seems like every day there's a new way. in which this Department of Justice is trying to pull one over on the federal courts, and Judge Brinkima wasn't having it. So they go on to say that a federal court does not have jurisdiction because they're citing to a case by Judge Leon in the District of Columbia, Eastern District of Virginia, is not the District of Columbia, in which he agreed that the case was moot. Although he did warn

the Department of Justice, Judge Leon did, the ballroom judge, that if he sees the fund come back, there will be serious penalties to be paid. They go on on page three to say, nor is there any basis for the court to compel testimony from the associate attorney general and two cabinet members saying that there's an Article III limitation on such judicial review. Accordingly, the court's demands are unnecessary.

The transcript of the testimony is attached, and that should be enough for the court. Let me play the clip that they're referring to Todd Blanche play the clip. Mr. Attorney General, I wanted to ask a few questions about the anti-weaponization fund. We know that the department has agreed to pause this effort until at least June 12th. I wanted to ask what your plans were for the fund after June 12th. So thank you. So look, we're not moving forward with the fund. You're right that there's a date that in the case in the East Michigan in June, but we are not moving forward with the fund, period.

We, we, the reasons for the fund is something that President Trump talked about for a long time, which is the fact that there were a lot of people in this country who had their government weaponized against them. The reasons for the fund, I think, were, were, it remained as important as they were before, but we are not moving forward with the fund. Not moving forward ever. Correct. Oh, there's no more fund then. Well, to the extent there was a fund.

Remember, the fund wasn't set up yet. There were no commissioners named. There was no claimants brought anything in front of, there was no claims made yet. So, yes, we're not moving forward with the fund. All right, let's be real. Who likes wearing a bra? Nobody, especially when you're working out, right?

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that you have not spoken to Todd Blanche. And now they're telling the court, screw it, where you're never going to hear from Todd Blanche ever in this case under penalty of perjury. And you should just live with whatever he says out in the real world, as opposed to in your courtroom. That's not going to be good enough. If I know Judge Brinkama, she's going to be pissed off by this filing, she's going to enter the scheduling order, requiring a responsive pleading by the 17th of July, which they've effectively baited her to do. And at the same time,

you've got what's going on in Miami, which I'm waiting to report on as well. Judge Williams gave the 35 former federal judges until Friday as well to tell her why she should find fraud on the court against Donald Trump, his lawyers, and presumably the Department of Justice. The Department of Justice didn't file an affidavit

under penalty of perjury in that case either. They didn't file testimony of Todd Blanche. We will never hear testimony of Todd Blanche except what he's in the confirmation hearing because he'll never testify in a court of law. They are willing as a Department of Justice to lose cases, to lose cases rather than put Todd Blanche under oath.

What does that tell you? It tells you everything you need to know about the Department of Justice and the feckless spirit of Todd Blanche. They lost a case in the East in the Middle District of Tennessee involving Kilmer Abrago-Garcia, they were willing to have a court find that the Department of Justice had vindictively prosecuted somebody rather than have Todd Blanche testify in order to satisfy the judge and their burden,

period. So does this shock me or surprise me that we're watching the Department of Justice once again refused to bring Todd Blanche before a court? He's a coward. He'll do anything to get this job as the Attorney General and everything that he's doing is a disqualifying event. Look, in the last 48 hours, I've reported on alone. Two federal judges in Chicago, Judge Coleman, Judge Perry, both looking at whether they should appoint special prosecutors to look at whether there's been an obstruction of justice and a violation of court orders for contempt in two different cases, criminal cases, in Chicago. And whether it goes up to the highest levels, including, And maybe the White House.

That's just going on now. Same thing's going to happen. I'm sure that Judge Williams is either going to rule on the papers in Miami against the Department of Justice, against Donald Trump, find there was fraud and deceit on the court, or she's going to appoint another special counsel. So if you thought the days under the current administration of talking about a special counsel are over, before, you know, because they need to get out of the DOJ for that to happen, forget it. Judges have the ability under federal rule of criminal procedure 42 to appoint special counsels under these unique circumstances, period.

It's just remarkable to me that they are playing with dynamite. They have no, the Department of Justice Todd Blanche has no respect for the federal courts, no respect for federal judges, no respect for federal juries, no respect for federal grand juries, no respect for the for the American people and he and that any one of those things and there are a dozen of a dozen of them are are going to be used against Todd Blanche in his confirmation hearing sometime around the 15th of July in fact it sounds like they're going to have to file a piece of paper to judge Brinkama in this case I'm describing right around the same time he's going to have a lot of explaining to do if you know what I mean and he's going to have a lot of answering he's going to have to

do to people like Sheldon White House, who I recently interviewed about how they're going to take on Todd Blanche about things like not testifying and not supporting their cases or admitting to bad faith practice. Here's a clip of Senator Whitehouse and me in the last couple of days on this issue. Andrew Boutros has his office dismissed with prejudice an $800 million COVID testing fraud scheme rather than turn over the emails and everything else about the misconduct in the grand jury, although Judge Coleman is holding a hearing today about that. They'd rather let two people go and give them a get out of jail free card than to have somebody for the Department of Justice testify or turn over their documents. And what they forget is that grand jury misconduct,

if it was performed, is complete when the grand jury misconduct is. And it's an offense against the court and supervises the grand jury. Fraud upon the court is complete when the fraud upon the court is performed. It's not like you get to get rid of the case and have those questions go away. And I think the record of the department is such that judges are simply not giving them

the benefit of the doubt about misconduct. They're going to want real answers about complete contempt, completed misconduct, completed fraud upon the court, and dumping cases just, it doesn't really help. What it does is it shuts up a plaintiff who could have done a lot of digging,

I'm sorry, a defendant who could have done a lot of digging into the misconduct as part of their defense. But if the court's willing to step in, it's still going to be the subjective inquiry and deservedly. So I'm glad you're here. You can find the filing that I just read from on Legal AF Substack for paid members. until my next report, a traveling Michael Popock for the Midas Dutch Network and LegalAF. Can't get your fill of Legal A.F. Me neither. That's why we form the Legal A.F. Every time we mention something in a hot take, whether it's a court filing or an oral argument, come over to the substack. You'll find the court filing and the oral argument there,

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